It is imperative that Israel not back down…no matter what. A victory by Israel in this matter will take the wind out of the anti settlement postures of the Europeans and the US. As a result, Israel will have more freedom to build in the future. Unfortunately, Israel stresses that she is only building homes in settlements that everyone knows will remain with Israel. That implies that where we are not building, we’re not keeping.
[Save for the probability of an American veto, the UNSC would have passed a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement construction plans. The UNSC, without an American veto, can call settlement construction, a threat to peace, rightfully or wrongly, thereby justifying sanctions or military intervention.]
Similarly, Israel keeps stressing she won’t compromise her security needs in any deal. This implies that the kind of deal represented by Olmert’s offer or Obama’s ’67 lines with swaps is acceptable by Israel so long as she is satisfied with the deal on the security side. Ted Belman
The four European members of the UN Security Council – France, Britain, Germany and Portugal are criticizing Israel and demanding an immediate halt to new settlement construction.
Representatives of the 14 council members stepped to the microphone outside the chamber after their monthly Mideast briefing Wednesday to denounce the Israeli settlement plans, which they warned is threatening a two-state peace settlement with the Palestinians. The council president said they did so because efforts to get all 15 members to agree on a resolution or statement had failed, almost certainly because of US opposition.
Related articles:
The European countries issued a statement saying they were “extremely concerned by and strongly oppose” Israel’s plans to expand construction of east Jerusalem neighborhoods and West Bank settlements and urged the Jewish state to “immediately” cease all settlement activities.
“Israel’s announcements to accelerate the construction of settlements send a negative message and are undermining faith in its willingness to negotiate,” the statement by France, Germany, Portugal and UK read.
“The viability of the two-state solution, that is key for Israel’s long-term security is threatened by the systematic expansion of settlements. Settlements are illegal under international law and detrimental to any international efforts to restart peace negotiations and secure a two-state solution…. We call on the Israeli government to rescind these plans and recall that we will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties,” the statement read.
According to the European countries, “The reported planning in the E1 area would risk cutting off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and could also entail the forced transfer of civilian population.”
The message was read out by British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor criticized the Security Council members’ for focusing on Israel rather than addressing the burning issues in the Middle East.
“This week, (Syrian President Bashar) Assad began to use SCUD missiles to escalate the mass murder of his people, Syrian Jet fighters bombed a mosque in a refugee camp killing dozens of Palestinians, and a giant Hezbollah arms warehouse exploded 300 meters from a school in a densely populated village in southern Lebanon,” he said. “Among all the pressing issues in the Middle East, what was singled out as the most urgent at this podium? Surprise, surprise… early plans to build homes in the Jewish people’s ancient capital of Jerusalem.”
The ambassador stressed that all new construction announced by the Israeli government on November 30th will take place in Jerusalem and in settlement blocs that will be part of Israel in a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
“I can’t understand how people conclude that a Palestinian state cannot exist if there is contiguity between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem. These are the same people who stand up and speak about a contiguous state between Gaza and the West Bank, areas divided by more than 60 kilometers (37 miles). And these same people don’t seem to mind that connecting Gaza and the West Bank would cut Israel in two.”
To emphasize his point he held up a large map of the area and asked, “What about Israel’s contiguity? What about Jewish contiguity?”
Prosor concluded his remarks by highlighting what he claimed were the three main obstacles to peace: The Palestinians quest for the so-called “claim of return,” terrorism, and Palestinian incitement.
Separately, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that Israel’s heightened settlement activity “gravely threatens efforts to establish a viable Palestinian state.” He urged Israel “to refrain from continuing on this dangerous path.”
“The Middle East peace process is in a deep freeze. The two sides seem more polarized than ever, and a two-state solution is farther away than at any time since the Oslo process began,” Ban warned.
In addition to the approval given on Wednesday to the construction of 2,612 housing units in Jerusalem’s Givay Hamatos neighborhood, Ynet learned that Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized the advancement of a plan to build 523 units in the Gva’ot settlement. Barak gave his authorization prior to the Palestinians’ bid in the UN.
Also on Wednesday, the Housing Ministery issued a tender for the construction of some 1,000 housing units in Givat Ze’ev, Har Homa, Karnei Shomron and Efrat.
@ Abraham Moses
In Texas we have a sayin “Why does a dog lick himself Because he can”
Why do the Arabs do what do, they do because they can, And who even tries to stop them?
@ Abraham Moses:
In Texas we say ” why does a dog lick himself Because he can”
Why do the Arabs claim Israel because they can and do and who stops them?
@ Joe Hamilton:
One would think that Israel would be the first one to assert the country’s rights to the land, but there has always been a government effort to hide them or to obfuscate them, starting with elementary school education, and by using the media to advance an Arab-Leftist narrative in textbooks for Jewish children!
Caroline Glick denounced the education minister on this column: Netanyahu’s Post-Zionist Education – https://www.israpundit.org/archives/42824
@ the phoenix:
It seems that there are several myths that are being deliberately propagated by Israel’s enemies, and by force of repetition are being accepted as the truth by too many Israelis. One of them is that “demonstrations don’t work”. The reason why mass demonstrations against Gush Katif expulsions failed in the end is because of treason by grassroots religious and secular leadership that derailed them at a very crucial moment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27TUyXm8HQ
Other myths have been built around annexation. That annexation will destroy the Jewish nature of the country. That citizenship for Arabs is inevitable. That Israelis could not survive international condemnation. And so on. The elite have already infiltrated probably most, if not all, right wing movements, large and small – and it’s undermining all efforts at asserting Jewish sovereignty across the Green Line. Having surrendered Temple Mount, Sinai, Gaza, and now neutered the IDF, the elite continue to work diligently at imposing a Dhimmi state in Israel proper.
I can’t understand what these palestinians are claiming right of return, when my father and many other Jews who lived in Arab countries were forced to leave their homes and buildings they owned, and were forced to flee to other parts of the world, e.g. from Baghdad to India, Singapore and other parts of the world.
Objection — assumes facts not in evidence.
What’s the connection between 2 states & Israel’s long-term security?
Good.
Let them cite the ‘international law’ they have in mind.
And that little game of charades in the General Assembly last Nov 29 wasn’t “detrimental to any international efforts to restart peace negotiations…?”
And who sprinkled pixie dust over the 1949 Armistice Lines to transform them into “borders”?
What ‘parties’?
The Jordanians took it (unlawfully) in 1948.
Israel took it back in 1967.
Jordan renounced it formally in 1988.
The only remaining sovereign party is GOI.
Not if they (and their Arab brethren abroad) behave themselves.
catarin Said:
definitely agree with you on this one catarin.
moral of the story?
do not do any business with arabs/muslims as it can only backfire.
The U.N. thinks Israel is sending a negative message? There is no possibility of peace here. If there was it would be incumbent upon the PA to make the first move since they are the ones making all the demands and asking for a never ending list of charity and freebies. Why should Israel listen to your voices, U.N.? Her existence and security is not your first interest.
Better to make plans to return every single descendent of Arabs who came to Israel after it became a state back to where their ancestor came from. These Arab workers were hired on good faith to work for the Jews, with nary a thought ever being given that decades later their descendents would claim the land.
@ C.R.:
G-d has always been a problem! Israel and Jewish are problems too.
@ Laura:
Miss Laura–the basis for this is simple–their hatred of God and of the Jewish people!
I wanted to add the fact that when and if Israeli leaders point out the fact that only Jews have title to not only all of Palestine but a large portion of Jordan, Lebanon and some of Syria (which they thankfully annexed), they will be met at best with the argument that several million trespassing Arabs live in the Jewish National homeland and what was done in 1920 or 1922 can’t be undone. However, in New York state in particular and Connecticut. 300 hundreds years after the original English settlers robbed the indigenous people’s land, courts ruled despite the passage of more than 300 years, Indian tribes were given title to large amounts of valuable land to create “reservations” and are treated by the courts as if they are separate, sovereign nations within NY state and Connecticut, and not subject to the Laws of the United States. The white people who already resided on lands which constituted the individual Indian reservations were compensated in many cases but not allowed to keep title to their homes. There are villages and towns whose population are entirely white which are on lands courts decided belonged to Native American tribes. The whites are permitted by these tribes to remain in their homes but cannot own them. Some of these tribes consisted of as little as 100 people most of whom are 7/8ths white. So while the hypocritical black Nazi Obama feels he can dictate where Jews can build homes on their own land, he fully supports these somewhat questionable Indian reservations which act almost as separate sovereign nations within the USA.
Canadian Otter Said:
I reviewed the history of how the League of Nations determined exactly what lands constituted the ancient kingdom of Judea which was to be the Jewish National homeland. It was very simple. Between 70 AD and 1919, there had never been a nation state in Palestine. So using the guiding principle of where feasible each ethnic group would rule themselves, the League actually used maps of ancient Israel to determine the area which expressly was to be ruled by the Jewish people, and they clearly stated only the Jewish people, although there was a Muslim majority but not an Arab Muslim majority. There was a Muslim majority only because the Muslim Ottoman empire had conquered Palestine but since it no longer existed the only people who the right to rule Palestine were the Jews. At the time and at no time previously was there a nation of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and of course Jordan. It was the vile cowardly surrender monkey anti-Semitic nation of France and of course the evil empire Britain created these artificial countries (except Iraq) in good part by stealing land from the Jewish national homeland.It’s laughable that there are discussions today of whether Israel has a right to exist. Israel has more of right to exist than any of the Muslim countries with the exception of Egypt and certainly more than the USA. The phony “Palestinian” people only moved to Palestine overwhelmingly after 1922. There had been a small presence of Egyptians and some Arabs indigenous not to Syria which never existed but the area around Damascus. Today the Jewish people govern only a relatively small fraction of the lands they legally have title to. When they announce they are building homes on a miniscule portion of their own land, the very nations who robbed the Jews of more than half of their lands become hysterical and threatening. When you consider the facts of the situation it is nothing short of mind boggling. I truly believe Israel should present these facts and tell the UN Security Council to go f—k themselves. Israeli Jews don’t realize their willingness to continue to act like Ghetto Jews by doing everything possible (including freezing building in their own capital which they have lived in for 3700 years so as to not offend the vile Euro-Nazis and the black Nazi Obama only makes the Euro-Nazis and the administration of Adolf Hussein Obama more contemptuous of Israel. Even the media of Israel refer to Jews building homes in their own land AS DEFINED BY NON JEWS IN THE TREATY OF SAN REMO as “settlements”.
@ larry lunchpail:
In your argument, lunchpail, you assume a 1:1 equivalency between Jews and musloids.
You are very mistaken, Sherlock.
The sleeping, shackled giant that Israel is, will not be so for long. luncpail
@ rongrand:
It does not take the intelligence of a rocket scientist to comprehend the fact that a Nation such as Israel with some 5.5 million Jews will not have the influence that 300 mil Arabs and 1.5 bil Muslims can leverage on the world scene. That is elemetary,Watson.
@ Laura:
Laura, there is no legitimate reason to claim eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a palestinian state other than to continue to harass the Jews and try to grab as much territory belonging to Israel.
They will continue as long as they feel world opinion is on their side.
You know what, who cares about world opinion. We all know it is driven by the liberal left anti-Semites.
The UN, this worthless body has no authority to stop Israel from taking what is rightfully theirs and no nation will entertain such a task or I should say crazy enough.
Time for Israeli leadership to take the bull by the horns and tell those who do not support them, f–k y-u.
The Israeli leadership sucks.
I hate to beat a dead horse or repeat myself (I often do) I can’t for the love of me understand why the Israeli government doesn’t allow it’s citizens to pray at their Temple. Makes no sense to me and I find it annoying. Time to remove the arabs from the site along with those rock throwing knuckleheads.
Again I ask, what is the basis for eastern Jerusalem to be the capital of a “palestinian” state or for that matter for such a state to be created at all? I’ve said this a number of times that to declare eastern Jerusalem not part of Israel is to retroactively legitimize Jordan’s illegal 1948 invasion, occupation of the area and the ethnic cleansing of Jews. Other than between 1948-1967 Jerusalem was never a divided city. If Jordan’s occupation was not considered legitimate in 1948 by most of the world, why is it retroactively being legitimized now?
@ Canadian Otter:
Dear otter,
On another thread, I was discussing with mr. Bernard Ross fighting back the very ones you mentioned. He was advocating ‘lawfare’ while I suggested ‘a 2×4 approach’.
I am cautiously optimistic to a legal recourse to hold the goi accountable for doing all it can to protect Jewish Israel and defending a Jew wherever he/she may be (my son is named in honor of the late commander of the raid on entebbe, who must be now rolling in his grave seeing the cowardly actions of his brother)
Having seen, a somewhat immediate reaction from the g.o.i. following the demonstrations and rallies held in t-a against the African invasion, i holding to my belief that a 2×4 approach will bring results.
@ Bernard Ross
It is IMPOSSIBLE that all these travesties against the Jewish people, that were committed directly or by collaboration, will go unanswered.
In a previous post you advocated how the law fare will bring out the historical truth to the average citizen that just might not even be aware how badly he’s been screwed and swindled and what’s worse – it is ongoing, and facilitated by the very government that is supposed to fight this!
I believe, it all boils down to when will critical mass be reached.
For when that happens , I am convinced that this ridiculous charade that has been going on for the last 45 years will stop.
My posts keep disappearing
I posted several other posts hours ago which I don’t see , and I didn’t even get the ” in moderation” message. Maybe it was because I compared the Obama regime to the National Socialists. If that violated the rules of what is acceptable ,I would like to know so I don’t waste my time. I would have altered my posts.
Perhaps an Israeli and international educational campaign is in order. As the European Union and the US administration ratchet up their war of words against the Jews and threaten more to come, new generations need to be reminded of what exactly the Europeans and the US are guilty of. Go back to hundreds of years of European demonization of Jews, confiscations, forced conversions, torture, massacres, expulsions. And then focus on the British violation of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, where they stole most of the Jewish land to give it to the Arabs. Clearly describe how the British made sure Jews were murdered by denying them entry into Palestine and England.
And expose the US govt part in allowing the Nazis to persecute and then murder millions of Jews. “Genocide Confirmed, Grudgingly. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12599 – The US government resisted denouncing Nazi crimes against Jews so as to avoid having to help the victims.
@ Joe Hamilton:
A very good point. I’ve been asking for years why is the state of Israel officially silent about British govt criminality during the Mandate, and how they got away with everything that you mention. Unlike the Germans – the British never had to answer for their part in the perpetration of the Holocaust. In my mind the Nazis were the executioners, and the Europeans and the US, Canada and others were the accomplices. So far no one has called the accomplices to account. The EU and the US routinely and shamelessly scold and punish surviving Jews for daring to exercise their rights in their own land – rights that all other nations take for granted. That’s nothing less than an obscenity.
Of course nobody should be able to steal the remaining Jewish land from the Jews without their permission.
But who is giving the Arabs and their Western friends permission? Who is officially silent about European/US complicity in the Holocaust, and the British violation of the Palestinian Mandate? – The government of Israel and Israeli leaders in general. That’s who.
Let us all convince Ted to include in the New Years resolution to once and for all get rid of this annoying:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
@ NormanF:
Excuse me Norman, if my memory serves me correctly, G-d led His people back to the Holy Land, Israel that includes Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai and the Golan Heights, the land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean. This sovereignty is with G-d given rights. G-d’s will abrogates all others.
Israel needs to continue to build communities throughout the land and forget what others believe or dis-believe, world opinion influenced by the liberal left and anti-Semites sucks.
Military intervention against will never happen,in case any supporter of Israel has any fears,for the following reasons. The US even with Adolf Obama in the White House would never support military aggression against Israel. The 4 nations mentioned in the news stories are much too weak militarily therefore ,no country would try to enforce these anti-Semitic rantings. Britain, France, and Germany combined are not able to “enforce” anything on Israel.This is based on “Armed Forces of the World Database” on Strategypage.com. The Editor Jim Dunnigan is in my opinion the most well informed expert on the military capabilities of individual nation’s military capability. Based on a very detailed evaluation of each nation’s military he gives a “land power” score which is capability of a nation’s army and air force. Israel is tied for 3rd place in the world with 2100. UK, France and Germany combined are slightly above 2100. These countries are very likely following the script provided to them by the 2012 version of National Socialists i.e. the Obama administration.
The UK (Island Nazis) are international outlaws .There is a legal case these beasts owe the Jewish people reparations for the following crimes committed against Jews. The crimes include:1. illegally altering the Palestine Mandate, thus creating the total artificial Muslim entity of Jordan. The second crime they are guilty of is the encouragement of the non-indigenous Muslims beasts to engage in violence including murder of the Jewish people who were and are the indigenous people who were residing in their national homeland .The third crime the British beasts committed while constantly violating international law in regard to their administration of the Jewish National Homeland during the years during which they were expected to carry out the Palestine Mandate was instead of facilitating the immigration of Jews which was their duty ,they prevented Jews from entering their national homeland resulting eventually in the murder of Jews in Europe by the German Nazis. The vile British beasts ,not content with being accomplices to the murder of millions of Jews, continued to obstruct the immigration of Jews to their national homeland until the very day they stopped soiling the land of Israel with their vile presence. The French aka surrender monkeys should compensate the Jewish people for their violation of international law by their theft of parts of the Jewish National Homeland to create the artificial Musloid country know n as Syria and the Musloid/Christian totally artificial country of Lebanon .They also should answer for their collaboration with the Nazis in rounding up Jews for their Nazis masters during WWII. They have Jewish blood on their hands. Portugal should answer for their enslavement of millions of Africans , their murder of them during the transportation of the Africans to land which Portugal illegally seized from the indigenous people which today is known as Brazil. In addition, they are responsible for the deaths of millions more of enslaved Africans who were treated so brutally in the land stolen by the Portuguese known as Brazil , that US slavery was incredibly mild by comparison. Lastly, I don’t have to waste time recounting the unprecedented criminal behavior which had no equal in world history committed the Nazis . Germany has not changed. Everything they have done for Jews and Israel was only for their own self interest. For example, reparations to Jewish survivors of concentration camps isn’t 1/10 of 1% of all the money they stoled from the European Jews. The Dolphin submarines provide cover for German companies who have been the most prominent foreign companies helping Iran to develop the capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons. The money they have given to Israel , and other so-called assistance to Israel is only public relations required to avoid the pariah status they deserve to this very day. Israel should respond by saying you have committed crimes against Jews (including the little backwards sh-thole Portugal) and have have Jewish blood on your hands. How dare you even think you have any moral standing to ever criticize the Jewish National Homeland. Instead of telling Jews where in their own homeland they can live, the Jewish people, demand compensation and reparations because you still have Jewish blood on your hands.
The only way the settlements are sustainable is to establish Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. This does not require Arab consent.
Without it, Israel faces continued world pressure to evacuate Judea and Samaria and turn it over to Hamas. Once an Arab state is established, that bell cannot be unrung later.
Its all the more critical to kill the so-called two state solution in the cradle.